Google launched its Android Pay service in Australia yesterday, with 28 financial institutions signed up as partners and more in the pipeline.ANZ is the only one of the Big Four involved in the launch. Twenty-five financial institutions will be connected to Android Pay via payment services provider Cuscal. The full list is here.Like Samsung, which launched Samsung Pay here last month, Google has an open engagement model, which means it is not taking a cut of the transaction fees. Its aim is to ensure widespread use of the service and access to customer transaction data.The digital wallet service will allow consumers to make contactless payments using their Android smartphones. Android mobile devices with the KitKat operating system or later systems can use Android Pay.It will also enable payments in apps.Google senior director product management Pali Bhat emphasised the convenience of the service saying consumers did not need to open the app to make a payment."Once you have set it up you just tap and you have paid," he said.Bhat said Google's plans for Android Pay included a "seamless connection" with reward and loyalty schemes, so that points would be allocated automatically with purchases. It has a number of "in-app partners" that will be added to the service. These include Catch of the Day, Clipp, Domino's, Go Catch, Jetstar, Kogan, Rewardle and The Iconic.Bhat also emphasised the security of the service, saying it would use tokenisation, which replaces a consumer's 16-digit card number with a unique series of numbers when making a payment. When a consumer makes a payment using a smartphone at a contactless payment terminal, instead of the account number going to the merchant's bank, the token is sent instead.